The Rock's of Beauty by Meghan Escott (books for new readers TXT) 📕

put my suitcase on my bed and Kahn's things on the huge desk that was pressed against the wall with a notice board hung on the wall. Then we both followed Cassius down the hall to Sam's room. It was exactly the same but if I knew Sam, he would personalise it with pictures of me and us together and possibly some pictures of Joshua and Kahn. Sam put the last suitcase on his bed and turned to Cassius.
“Who will look after Kahn while we are both teaching?”
“We have a sort of nursery here for the students and teachers that have small children. Someone will come and get him or I can personally take him there.” Sam seamed to be satisfied with Cassius answer so he took Kahn from me and gave him a little kiss on his nose.
“Do you want me to look after him tonight?” he asked me after we had started moving towards his office in the classroom sections.
“I'd rather have him tonight. This is the first I've seen the little soldier in weeks.” I said to Sam and he passed Kahn back to me. I was tickling his belly when a student rounded the corner and stopped to stare at me. I was glad I had covered my eyelids in concealer.
“What can I do for you Sophie?” Cassius calmly asked although moving slightly towards me and Kahn.
“Nothing Sir. Excuse me Sir, Ma'am.” She said it nicely but I could almost taste the sarcasm in the air after she had rounded the corner.
“Careful of her,” Cassius said to me. “She's the bitch of Year 4. I wouldn't pick her to answer a question. Ever.”
We carried on walking for another couple of minutes with Kahn making the only noise of giggling in the silence until we reached a door which had no sign on it – contrasting with the doors around it. This must be Sam's office. Cassius took a key out of his pocket and handed it to Sam. He walked up to the door and inserted the key to unlock the door. The door gave a loud click and in swung the door, revealing a normal office with a desk, internet cable and lots of filing cabinets. Sam walked in with me and Cassius following and Cassius opened one of the draws in the filing cabinets.
“Each cabinet is for each year. Each class is in each drawer. Your schedule for each day on the board and you must complete lessons plans for each class that you have this week. You will be teaching year 1 and 2 the basics of telepathy and mind control and year 3 and 4 who have majored and need mental activity lessons. Your classroom is the room to your left.” Cassius finished and walked out the door waiting for me.
“I'll catch you later honey.” I said to Sam and kissed him on the cheek. I followed Cassius outside and I heard Sam sigh and start to go through the filing cabinets to do the lesson plans. “So where is my office?”
“Because you have majored in so many things you will be teaching a general class about the ways of the vampire kind. Year 1 will be very basic and very easy considering they know nothing about the ways of vampire. Year 2 will be getting more into majoring and what abilities vampires can have and how they can decided to use them. Year 3 will be more like your life now – princes and princesses and how they work and Year 4 will be about the ancient magic's, how they are found and how they are used. Although you must not encourage anyone to try to become an elementist. It is extremely hard to live through and we have not found a new elementist for nearly 50 years when a vampire became of water.” As Cassius was walking me through what I would have to teach each year, he was physically walking me to my office which was much bigger than Sam's when Cassius opened the door for me.
“You must document what has been asked by what pupil in each lesson. It will give us some clues into which subjects they will major in and whether they are having any troubles. One lesson a fortnight, it is traditional for the class to ask questions via notes and then you have to try and answer as many of them as you can in the next fortnight. Though, as I said earlier, you must document what each student has asked. These filing cabinets have a file with every students name and the questions they have asked since being at this school. Your schedule is also on your notice board and you must plan for the next couple of days since they are doing the noted questions in the next couple of days.” It was a lot to take in but I thought that I would be okay. I started looking along the filing cabinets working out quickly their alphabetical order of first names. I went straight to the Year 4 cabinet and straight to S and picked out the only Sophie – the Sophie we had seen in the hallway.
'For minutes at a time I blank out and I don't know why.'
'I have black marks on my body.'
'Everyone seems to be avoiding me, I must have done something but I can't remember what.' I was instantly worried about this girl.
“Where can I find the files containing all the things that they have done at this school and their history?” I asked Cassius after putting her file on my new desk.
“I'll show you but first a question. Do you want your sign to say Daniels or Jahd?”
“Daniels. We aren't married yet.” I said quickly and Cassius chuckled as he led me literally across the hall to a door saying 'Files – no entry to students.' “Isn't that a bit stupid? That's bound to get students to go in there.”
“The door has been magically locked and only teachers can get in. But for the moment, I can get in for you.” He put his hand on the handle and the door swung inwards to show a square room with massive filing cabinets holding files on every student and by the looks of it every teacher that was at the school. Cassius moved over to the Year 4 cabinet and opened the second to bottom draw and took out a 'Sophie Bernwell' file and gave it to me. “You can take it to your office if you would like?” He said and then followed me back to my office where I gave Kahn to him and sat on my chair and flicked through Sophie's file.
After a minute of flicking through her file I knew what was wrong with her and why she was mean to people and why people avoided her.
“Where will the students be now?”
“They'll be having their dinner in the great hall.”
“The teachers will be there too?”
“Yes, teachers and students dine together and Sam should have made his way down there as well.”
“Take me there.” Cassius handed Kahn back to me and then led me out of my office not bothering to lock it and walking me to the dining hall.
When we got there I could tell because of the noise inside the door. Cassius walked on in front of me and then I walked in with Kahn and everybody stopped. They stopped what they were doing and looked at me. Even the teachers sat at the top of the hall stopped and looked at me approaching. Sam was sat in between two men and was smiling nervously at me. I smiled back at him and just concentrated on walking to the top table without embarrassing myself. Cassius led me straight up to the middle of the table where the women that I had saw him talking to in my vision was sat.
“Lucy, this is Grace. Grace, this Lucy Ma'am.” Cassius told me.
“Professor Jahd, how are you settling in?” She asked me in her powerful voice.
“I'm settling in well Ma'am. I would prefer it if I was professor Daniels though Ma'am.”
“Very well Professor Daniels, I hope you will enjoy teaching here and I hope that the students will stop staring.” She raised her voice and the students in the hall at turned back to their food. “How old is the little one?” She asked her tone of voice changing completely.
“Just under 7 months?” I looked questionably at Sam who gave a quick nod.
“Your place at the table is evident and I want you to restart our after school magic training since I know that you have considerable knowledge of the magical arts. It will be open to all year groups, teachers and guards. Cassius, fill her in when Professor Daniels returns to her office.” Cassius nodded, bowed and then left the room the way that we had come in. I took my place at the table – between two women who introduced themselves as Crystal and Amanda. They took it in turns holding Kahn and giving him a tickle as I scanned the student body for Sophie. When I found her all I wanted to do was go and talk to her. I turned to Crystal.
“Am I allowed to go or do I have to wait until Grace says we can go?”
“You can just go. Why?”
“I need to talk to Sophie Bernwell.”
“You don't want to talk to her Lucy.”
“I think I know what's wrong with her. I just need to take her to my office and then I can get to the bottom of it.”
“I would go for it then. I'll see you later.” Crystal said and gave Kahn back to me. I stood up and went behind Grace and went to Sam.
“Would you mind looking after him for a couple of hours? I know I said I wanted him tonight but some things have come up that I really want to resolve.”
“That is no problem honey.” Sam said and I gave Kahn to him and he started kissing his nose making him giggle.
“You're so good with him.” I said to him and kissed his cheek. “I'll come by your room to get him.” and then I walked over to where Sophie was sat on her own.
“Hi. Are you Sophie Bernwell?” She lifted he head slightly then nodded in response to my question. “Do you want to finish the rest of your dinner in my office?” I asked kindly and she nodded her head again. I took her tray and she stood up next to me and followed me out of the double doors where Cassius joined us. “Cassius. Just the man I wanted to find. Would you show me and Miss Bernwell here to my office. I haven't quite picked up the route.” Cassius nodded and we followed him to my office, me still holding Sophie's tray of food.
As Cassius opened the door to my office, the files on Sophie were still on my desk and open. I gave the full file back to Cassius and I closed the question file and put it back in my filing cabinet after putting Sophie's tray of food on my desk and told her to sit.
“Those were my files weren't they.” Sophie asked after an awkward silence had erupted.
“I'm not going to lie to any of my students so yes, they were your files. I saw you on your own in the hallway and I had a quick flick through your previous questions and I thought that your history might help me work out the answers to your questions.” Cassius was waiting at the door by this point. “Cassius, I need you to